Only half the prospective students in Atherton can get into their nearest high school due to overpopulation, a councillor has claimed. Coun James Watson said in his ward, 250 students were fighting for 120 Year 7 places at Atherton High School each year - and increased housing is the cause, he told the Confident Places Scrutiny committee.
A committee performance report showed that Section 106 money - developer contributions to local infrastructure - had been spent on building 263 affordable homes in the first two quarters of the 2022/23 financial year. Coun Watson told Wigan Town Hall he wants more of this money going towards increasing capacities at local schools and GP surgeries before they ‘collapse’.
“In 2020 the average house in the borough was £140,000,” he explained to the council chamber.
